Call for redemption as executed Andrew Chan mourned

Flower bouquets are seen in front of the home of the parents of executed Australian drug convict Andrew Chan in Sydney on May 2, 2015.

SYDNEY - More than 1,000 people mourned executed Australian drug smuggler Andrew Chan at his funeral in Sydney Friday with his brother saying he should have been given a second chance during an emotional tribute.

Chan - who converted to Christianity and became a pastor during his decade in jail - faced an Indonesian firing squad late last month with fellow Australian Myuran Sukumaran and six other prisoners despite pleas for mercy from Canberra saying that they had been rehabilitated.

Both men were sentenced to death in 2006 over their role as ringleaders of a plot to bring heroin into Australia from the Indonesian island of Bali, and their execution has strained bilateral ties.

Chan's older brother Michael told the "celebration service" at an enormous Pentecostal Hillsong Church he had "undeniably touched many people's lives over the last 10 years".